Worship and the Glory of God

Several of these statements do express a desire to do all that they do for the glory of God. But the
means are left at evangelism and edification, which by their very nature are man-focused in nature.
Are the evangelization of the world and the edification of the saints the ultimate expressions of
God's purposes in creating us and saving us and calling us into His service? Does the Great
Commission encompass all which we are to be about as a body of believers? Surely not, in light of
some of the themes we have been talking about.

2. The Great Commandment

And surely not even in light of Jesus' own words. He says in the Great Commission that we are to
learn to obey all that He commanded. And elsewhere He makes very clear what the most
important command of all is. It is so reminiscent of things we have seen already:

"One of the scribes . . . asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?'
Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, "Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one
Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."'" (Mark
12:28-30)

The Great Commandment tells us that, above all else, we are to love God with all of our being. Our
primary responsibility is not service or even obedience. We are to be first and foremost lovers of
God; people that glorify Him and enjoy Him forever and express that love through a life and
lifestyle of worship. The connection is obvious: if God made us primarily to worship and glorify
Him; and if the primary thing He requires of us is our love-- then we must be talking about
essentially the same thing. Worship, therefore, is loving God with all of our being, and cherishing
His glory.

God is seeking worshippers; not evangelists, not disciplers, not missionaries, but worshipers--
lovers of God who base their whole existence in exalting Him in all of their endeavors.

3. The Relationship between the Great Commandment and the Great Commission

Notice the purely vertical focus of the Great Commandment; "love the Lord your God," period--
not show your commitment to God by doing this, that, and the other. The Great Commandment
speaks of worship in that it is purely vertical in its focus; that utter God-centeredness reflects what
we have already seen about how ultimately all that we do should point towards God and His glory.

The Great Commission, on the other hand, by definition involves activities which are more
horizontal, man-focused in nature (namely, evangelism and discipleship). The fact of the matter is
that the Great Commission grows out of and is built on the foundation of the Great Commandment
and the second greatest commandment, which Jesus explains in Mark 12 to be:

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (12:31)

The Great Commission grows out of the interworking of these first and second greatest
commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor: if we truly love God, we will follow through
with the love of neighbor which He commands and enables; and the greatest love we can show to
our neighbor is to help him become a lover of God, a worshiper, in his own right.

Even in Matthew 28 we find worship undergirding the Great Commission; we read in v. 16:

"The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.

When they saw Him, they worshiped Him."

Then the Great Commission itself begins with a vertical focus:

"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .'" (vv. 18-19)

We see that the context of the Great Commission is worship (28:16), and its foundation is the
authority of Jesus Christ )28:18). Our outreach and discipleship must flow out of an appreciation
for the glory of God and out of a heart which is full of worship-- otherwise, as Piper points out,
"You can't commend what you don't cherish." (LNBG, p.11) And our outreach and
disciplemaking must lead ultimately to more worship being offered up for God's own pleasure. (It
should also be said that a church which genuinely worships will reach out -- for if the people
do not grow to share God's heart for the lost, we may legitimately question how close they have
really come to Him in worship!)

4. A Proper Emphasis and Balance

While the church mission statements mentioned earlier are strong on the Great Commission and
rightly concerned with the glory of God, yet they are woefully lacking when it comes to
acknowledging worship as the primary and ultimate focus of the church. Here are some mission
statements which come closer to giving worship its proper due:

1. "As a local expression of the universal body of Christ, we desire to
corporately love God with all our being by worshipping Him and loving
others through relevant ministry both locally and around the world."

2. " [Third Church] exists for the purpose of: magnifying Jesus through
worship and the Word; making Jesus known to our neighbors and the
nations; and moving believers in Jesus toward maturity and ministry."

3. "The priorities of ministry of this church flow from the vision of God's
glory revealed in Jesus Christ. We exist to savor this vision in worship
(John 4:23), strengthen the vision in nurture and education (I
Corinthians 14:26, II Peter 3:18), and spread the vision in evangelism,
missions, and loving deeds (I Peter 2:9, 3:15, 5:16; Matthew
28:18-20)."

4. "The Mission of [Fourth Church] is to glorify God through joyful
worship, to show God's love to all people, to lead them to faith in Jesus
Christ, to make them His disciples, and to call them to His service.".

These statements put worship in its proper place: first. And I believe thereby God is honored,
because it is clear that when we are putting worship first, we are in fact putting Him first.

C. How it all fits together

What does this perspective then mean for the ministry of the church? How does it all fit together?

1. An End in Itself

To quote from Piper once more: "Of all the activities in the church, only one is an end in
itself: worship." (from "Worship Is an End in Itself," a sermon manuscript). This derives from
some of the things we have already looked at.

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